Former WVC stars power Team USA

Making her 100th appearance in a national team jersey, Dallas grad Paige Selenski led the United States to a huge win in its opener at field hockey’s World Cup in The Hague, Netherlands on Sunday.

Selenski and Wyoming Seminary graduate Kelsey Kolojejchick scored goals as the U.S., ranked 10th in the world coming into the prestigious tournament, knocked off third-ranked England, 2-1.

“It is a good day,” Selenski said. “We’ve been working really hard for this and we came out here and we knew what we had to do. We had a good game plan and I think we executed it really well. We have certain things to work on, but overall, I think it was a great game to start off with.”

The 23-year-old Selenski was fouled while making a run into the circle in the third minute of the game, then finished off the resulting penalty corner herself. England goalkeeper Maddie Hinch looked to get just enough of a Caroline Nichols shot on the penalty corner to send it wide, but Selenski was stationed at the left post to make it 1-0.

Kolojejchick’s goal also came on a penalty corner in the 15th minute. She

redirected a Nichols pass into the top of the cage from outside the right post to make it 2-0.

“That’s been one of our goals coming into this tournament, to execute on penalty corners,” Selenski said. “I think we did that really well today. I think that’s a positive thing for us going forward. I think that can make or break a tournament like this and we’re really looking forward to continuing to execute on those.”

Wyoming Seminary grad Kat Sharkey also played for the U.S. in the game.

The Americans are making their first appearance in the tournament.

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.